


Fading Magic

by Arkeys



Category: Dragon Age - Various Authors, Dragon Age x Mass Effect Crossover, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Dragon Age x Mass Effect Crossover - Freeform, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:58:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkeys/pseuds/Arkeys
Summary: Based a little after the Tragedy at Kirkwall. Will Follow Kaidan Alenko and Shepard as they make their way in the world. Who will they meet and where will this adventure take them? No one know, not even the author.It begins like many with frustration and a deal made in secret.





	Fading Magic

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work that I have posted. I am a big fan of both Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The idea came to me when I saw the Mass Effect X Dragon Age crossover art.

The Fade was as it always is, a strange mix of truth and lie. The air sings with possibilities but always with the subtle taste of warning. For a mage there is no place where they feel more free, more powerful...and more afraid.

The demons are always there looking for prey to satisfy their wicked purposes, whatever they may be. Truth be told we don't know much about them, but everyone knows they are dangerous. They aren’t the only danger a Circle mage knows. The Circle likes to cover up its problems. Try and make it seem like they don't exist, but they do. The towers were said to have been built to keep us safe, but they don’t. They trap us with our worst enemies.

Templars may not be all bad, but the way that they see the mages had changed recently. Rumor has it that a rogue mage destroyed the Chantry of Kirkwall. The tension before then had been palpable, but harmless for the most part. I’ve read that soldiers who fight and train together develop stronger ties, and in an organization like the Templars most everyone knew someone lost at Kirkwall. Everyone had someone to avenge! Powerless to convict the criminal who caused the losses, they turn on any mages.

Recently, the rest of the mages have begun traveling in groups, in a bid for protection. This only causes us to be watched more closely. We huddle tighter together, they watch us closer, and so the cycle goes. I guess it is no wonder that I have found myself in the Fade more and more often recently.

I know that it isn’t real, but sometimes I see the world as it could be. A place where mages are not ripped from their families and caged for what they are, where I could walk outside and not see the looks people give us because of what we can do. A place where everyone can just be free!

I am not blind to the dangers, but I do know that if things continue as they are. If something isn’t done soon, then all that anger will build then burst and no one will like the ending. Not the mages, not the Templars, and not the civilians that would get caught in the middle of the bloodbath. They wouldn't stand a chance!

_"Why not change it?"_

The voice is almost to faint for me to hear, but this is the Fade and every voice is real.

With a tired sigh I look around, searching. "Leave me Desire! I want nothing to do with you and your tricks." I tell the wisp of voices that sings to me, much like the Fade itself. The sound is sweet and soothing, one that I know I could listen to forever. I shake my head as the voice chuckles as if I joke.

_"Desire?! I am no paltry Desire demon here to whisper sweet nothings to a mortal toy."_ The voice proclaims proudly, her voice directly behind me.

I turn to search for her, knowing she will be gone when I do. "I don't care what you are demon! I know the games of your kind well. Now, leave me!" I grind through my teeth as I prepare myself for the fight I sense to come.

_"Ohhhhh... I see... Why is it so rare to find a mortal with manners?"_ she whimpers sadly and instantly I feel regret rears its head at her tone. I silently curse myself for reacting to her disappointment.

_"No matter... Listen well for I will only tell you once..."_ I opened my mouth to silence her once again, but my body freezes under a power far stronger than any I’ve felt before.

_"... My dear, weren't you taught not to interrupt? Rude little boy... Now where was I?"_ She ponders to herself as I feel my blood run cold with the realization that I was powerless before an unknown demon. _"Ahhh yes...My offer..."_ She whispers as the Fade warps before me. I watch powerlessly as smoke pours from nowhere gathering into a vaguely humanoid shape and watch as light begins to glow from the center of the darkness.

_"You wish for change...but you don’t wish for the power necessary to bring it..."_ she began, pausing as she tilted what seems to be her head in what I can only assume was confusion. _"To find one who understands the price of their power has become quite.... rare...most would beg for the strength to do what must be done... or they wish for nothing to change... Some wish to hide in layers of lies and pretend that the world doesn’t exist...You know this feeling well, don’t you?."_ She presses as she begins to pace before me the shadows and lights that make up her body dancing as she moves.

She circles me and I notice that my head turns to follow her finally under some minimal form of control. _"...Why do you come to the Fade?"_ She whispers curiously " _I could find the answer in this mind of yours, but...I find an agreement takes two to be reached...I believe you mortals have a saying for it...."_ She ponders aimlessly, a thin wisp of smoke-like fingers coming up to tap at what appears to be a chin. _"Something about dancing...Anyway, unimportant...What is important is this...I have power and you have potential...I can show you how you could make a true change in the world...In exchange you shall owe me a …small favor."_

A snap of wisp like fingers and I can feel the muscles in my jaw begin to ache and I move it gently testing my renewed control. I take a minute to consider, knowing that she could have done almost anything she wanted while I was under her power. "Who are you?" I begin figuring that a simple, safe question. She chuckles and I begin to rethink how simple the answer will be...

_" I am the string that can't be cut, and the first strand to fall from the web. I am the life of child, husband, and wife who in the end will all be met with strife. The grass that grows and the sun that shows. I am all and I am none. But you may call me Fate. Once I was worshiped by The Children, those you call elves... I suppose that would make me a goddess."_ She finishes eloquently as I stare at her ever shifting form questioningly. I can feel myself gaping at the shrouded form of the formless figure

"A goddess?" I sputter incredulous, dread welling up within me.

“ _I suppose though even they have long since forgotten me."_ she sighs sadly and I can’t help but want to comfort her. " _Nonetheless, there is a matter that I need assistance with."_ she presses.

"A goddess is asking me for help” I begin cautiously wetting my lips as I feel myself tremble a little despite the paralysis.

She laughs and I can't help but shiver at how sinister the sound seems. _"Little mage rest assured you will be able to turn down my offer should you wish and I will let you get back to your pathetic existence… though I must warn you that should you not agree to my offer something in the near future will end your life quite prematurely as well as many of your..._ " she pauses as if searching for the word. " _Friends, I suppose_."

I can feel a little bit of control return to my body as I feel my magic surge in anger. “Is that a threat?" I say preparing myself.

She pauses again and then gasps _"Ah, I suppose that did come off as a threat, didn’t it? No, that my dear is a warning of what is to come."_ It explains daftly leaving me feeling somewhere between relieved and worried. Maybe a little of both. _"The information that I have could save you and those you care for should you chose to accept my task."_

Definitely, a little of both I think to myself grimly! Everything I know of the Fade and those who dwell within tells me that I shouldn’t even entertain this incredibly dangerous and mysterious goddess, but if what she says is true then... "What is the task and what will happen?" I question cautiously.

Her form flickers as she laughs again. _"I need...something found...found and brought to a friend of mine...along with a message. As for what will happen well I can't rightly tell you that until you accept my deal."_ she smirks slyly somehow managing to clap her shadowy wisps of hands daintily. _"Though, I do applaud the attempt at tact."_

I feel myself flush at her condescendence and begin to mull over my options. However, there are just too many unknowns about this. I am about to turn her down when she snaps her smoke wisp finger, somehow substantial enough to produce sound, and I am back in the tower. I almost wonder if I woke up, but no I can still feel the Fades' whispers of power tickling at the back of my mind. I walk toward my bunk and can't help but marvel at the detail of the illusions that this Fate can produce. It even has the markings that I put on the side of my bunk when I first came to the tower.

I feel her presence in the back of my mind like one of those niggling feelings when you know something bad is about to happen. I turn swiftly searching for the source, but she is nowhere to be seen. I sense power ahead and recognized it to some degree, I feel the warp and the emotion of the ancient past that loops itself always showing the same scenes, but through the eyes of all those who lived it. I remember the first time I visited this vision that all among the circle have named "The Memory of Burns" A never-ending loop of time showing a powerful explosion in the Circle's old library and the demons that began to poor into the chamber through the flames. Images flow through me in rapid succession. One second, I am watching the blazing horrors rising from the fire. Next, I am running feeling fear painfully digging into my sides until I have to stop and clutch at my chest discovering the flames burning there that won’t die. Then I can't breathe as some of the fires die releasing a horrid cloud of smoke that approaches as if it is some hunting beast swallowing me as it would its prey.

I gasp pulling myself forcefully back to the present feeling myself drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf. I try to avoid this area for a great many reasons too numerous and obvious to count. Why did she bring me here? Before I can put my thoughts to words she appears before me more wisp now than shadow.

_"I cannot remain much longer before your elders take note of my presence. However, I can tell you that should you not accept my request then a slaughter of even greater scale then shown here shall afflict your Tower. None shall be left alive..."_ She looks at me with what may almost pass for tears in her eyes.

I look into those midnight black eyes and I can feel her sorrow, and her fury. "You can't be serious!" I all but shout "Surely someone would--"

A simple wave of Fates hand is all that it takes to silence me!

_"All dead."_ She states icily.

Her cold response leaves me stunned for a moment, but I swallow dryly past the lump in my throat and try to meet her eyes. "Why me?" I croak.

" _Because you are the only one who would listen to me and head my warning. I have searched hard for a champion. One that would heed my warning but would not follow blindly. One who would do anything for what they believed in. You are someone that I can work with."_ I shake my head in shock, surely someone would make it. Every face I know in the tower flashes through my mind. No one would survive?

“ _I told you to call me Fate, because I have seen what will happen should my champion fail. I need your help, and you need mine.”_ I shake my head as if to block her words. Do I believe her? Could she really be telling the truth? She seems to smirk at my inner turmoil. _"Those who would take my offer without question would be too dependent on me. Those who would never trust me would ignore my warnings. And then there are those who would stand in the middle of the two choices plagued by their own uncertainties until their whole world comes crashing down."_ She circles me now much like ravens to a battlefield. _"I need a champion who would question and trust my word and who even without all the answers would still make a decision. It could be another, true, but I want you!"_  

Her shade-like hand reaches out to me, no longer seeming so sinister. And I can't help but ponder on why she doesn't change her form, surely, she would have more luck convincing people if she didn't look so menacing. Her echoing soft laughter startles me out of my thoughts

" _If I show a lie upon our first meeting how would someone trust me later?"_ she retorts to my unspoken thought. " _Now my dear. Will you help?"_ she asks reaching an open wisp-shrouded hand towards me. A million different thoughts run through my head as I look to her hand extended towards me. Do I trust her? No, not completely. But, I know that if she were a normal demon she would have possessed me by now. Maybe everything she says isn't the truth. I look up to meet the eyes of the being before me. Gazing deep into their dark depths and I feel more than see the sympathy in them. And that is what make up my mind!

I slowly reach out and clasp her hand. "For now. I will help you." Her face shifts slightly as she smiles, becoming a little more human. The rippling shadows writhe less and begin to look more like human skin, though in a multitude of shades I never knew existed. _“Shall I know my champions name?”_ she softly questions “I’m not your champion, I’m just doing this to save my friends. And my name is Kaidan!”

" _Then Kaidan_ ” she whispers with a smirk gleaming in her shadowed face. “ _I shall grant you a few gifts that I think you will find useful."_ She whispers as part of the shadows that makeup her arms begin covering my own. I feel no small amount of panic as I watch them climb my arm, then my shoulder. Did I make a mistake I think as I feel my body slowly encased? My body begins to feel a little colder. It doesn't hurt but I can feel it crawling slowly up my neck. My eyes flash to her only to see she has not moved at all. She meets my eyes once more, and then the world goes dark.

**Author's Note:**

> If you feel inclined please let me know what you thought of it. Thank you for reading!


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